The Coal and Coke Heritage Center, on the lower level of University Libraries’ Fayette Campus Library at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus, includes a museum and archive centered on the 1870–1970 heyday of southwestern Pennsylvania’s bituminous coal and coke industries.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries will host its next Library Discovery Hour on May 6 with an online Special Collections Spotlight highlighting its Coal and Coke Heritage Center museum and archive, housed on the ground floor of the Fayette Campus Library at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus.
The presentation will uncover Fayette County’s rich mining community heritage with stories and artifacts that preserve the industry’s legacy. Attendees will learn about the journey from immigration to life in bustling mining towns and gain insights into the coking process that shaped the industry.
“The Coal and Coke Heritage Center focuses on the compelling and dramatic history of mining in southwestern Pennsylvania. We tell the stories of immigrants seeking a brighter future, of miners risking their lives daily to provide for their families, of wives and mothers waiting with bated breath as the dust settles after a mine collapse. Our collections preserve the cultural traditions and hard-working attitudes of a community stitched together by the unwavering desire to survive and thrive,” said Abby Tancin, archivist at the Coal and Coke Heritage Center and Fayette Campus Library at Penn State Fayette. “The CCHC is, in many aspects, the final resting place for the history of patch towns and their amazing occupants. It is our duty to preserve the past and share it with our campus and our community.”
Online registration for the Library Discovery Hour is available for the Zoom webinar, scheduled for noon Eastern time on Tuesday, May 6.
For questions and additional information about the event, contact Gretchen Little at [email protected].
